1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to an airbag system installed on a motor vehicle, and more particularly to a head protection air bag system adapted for protecting a head of an occupant of the vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
In a known example of the head protection air bag system of the above type as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3052085, an airbag stored in a vehicle roof portion along a roof side rail inflates and deploys into a curtain-like shape, to extend along a side wall of a passenger compartment, when the airbag is supplied with gas fed from an inflator that is mounted on the roof side rail.
In the head protection airbag system of the above type, in which the inflator is mounted along the roof side rail, it is possible that the occupant of the vehicle can hit his/her head against the inflator. In view of this possibility, the airbag system disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3052085 employs an arrangement in which the inflator is located between a front-seat inflatable portion (having a first group of cells) for protecting a front-seated occupant and a rear-seat inflatable portion (having a second group of cells) for protecting a rear-seated occupant. With this arrangement, the occupant is less likely to hit his/her head against the inflator. Although the above-indicated Japanese Patent discloses a passive countermeasure for reducing the above-described possibility of hitting the occupant""s head against the inflator, positive measures have not been proposed to mitigate or reduce an impact that could occur upon hitting of the occupant""s head against the inflator.
In view of the above-described disadvantages, there is provided according to one aspect of the invention a head protection airbag system for a vehicle including a roof side rail, which system comprises: (a) an airbag stored in the vehicle along the roof side rail, (b) an inflator mounted to the roof side rail, the inflator being operable to supply gas for inflating the airbag so that the airbag deploys into a curtain-like shape along a side wall of a vehicle compartment, and (c) a bracket that is formed of an energy absorbing material and is interposed between the roof side rail and the inflator for mounting the inflator to the roof side rail such that the inflator is movable over a predetermined distance, whereby an external force applied to the inflator is mitigated by the bracket.
With the head protection airbag system constructed as described above, even if an occupant of the vehicle hits the head against the inflator, external force (or an impact) applied to the inflator upon hitting is mitigated due to an energy absorbing effect of the bracket formed of the energy absorbing material. Thus, an impact that would occur upon hitting of the occupant""s head against the inflator can be sufficiently mitigated or suppressed.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the vehicle further includes a roof headlining that is disposed on one side of the inflator closer to the vehicle compartment so as to cover the inflator, and the head protection airbag system further comprises an energy absorbing member mounted on a portion of the roof headlining that faces the inflator.
In the above embodiment in which the energy absorbing member is mounted on a portion of a back surface of the roof headlining that faces the inflator, an impact that would occur upon hitting of the occupant""s head against the inflator can also be mitigated due to an energy absorbing effect of the energy absorbing member.